No sooner had Chris Pronger requested a trade than the city's rumour mills and Internet sites began churning out reasons why. Pronger heard most of them and called it nothing more than mean-spirited garbage.

"Factless and baseless," he said in his conference call yesterday. "I can understand everybody wanted to get the exact reason. The easiest thing I can say is none of the rumours I've heard are accurate."

He admits there's no way to stop people from filling cyberspace with whatever they want, but wishes his family was left out of it.

"With the Internet, and all that it encompasses nowadays, it's pretty easy to throw out a lot of lies and a lot of rumours," he said.

"It's obviously hurtful, but I'm a big boy. I've been in this league 13 years now and had to go through a lot in junior and have been able to grow a thick skin and learn how to deal with a lot of the different things that happen to professional athletes.

"But when you start bringing wives and children and families into the mix it's very hurtful. They aren't as used to it and don't know how to block it out. That's the unfortunate side of this whole situation."

Pronger's wife, Lauren, took a lot of heat, and still might be a major reason for the trade request, but the big defenceman says this should be about him and nobody else.

"She's the mother of my kids and my wife and somebody I love very much.

"It's sad that she's had to be put through a lot of this and not understand a lot of why she got dragged into the mix."